JESSIE KENNETH

By: Richard Archer

Jessie Kenneth was born on July 29th, 1918. He served in WWII from 1942-1945 in the Horse Calvary. He enlisted as a cook because he was about to be drafted. Mr. Kenneth went overseas, hopping all over the French islands and the Philippines. He said he cooked stew.

While working as a cook, a plane flew overhead and dropped bombs; he kept some shrapnel. (shrapnel, above; text, below)

He wrote letters, but his family couldn’t know his location. They could still write, however. Once, as a joke, he told his girlfriend that the island he was on wasn’t good enough for him, but he would be there awhile anyway. He was on “Goodenough Island”. They left “Goodenough Island” because of a horrible rat infestation, and they all had to be vaccinated for something rat related.

Mr. Kenneth made it clear that he remembers the native women who carried baskets on their head while wearing only small straw skirts. While island hopping, if he gave a cigarette to a native, the native would scuttle up a tree and get him a coconut. The Army kept trained attack dogs in camp. Once a native tried to buy a dog, offering a girl in exchange. They had to turn down the deal.

He told one particularly violent story: his company spotted some “Japs” (a term he used frequently and with much disdain) hiding in a tree. His men shot all of them and they hung from the tree (caught on branches and such). His men had locals cut them down.

On many islands they had to dig holes five people wide to sleep in. “It was safer that way.” One man stood watch for every few holes, and the people on watch duty tied strings to each other so that they could change shifts without giving away their position.

Once, while he was cooking, a Japanese soldier snuck up behind his captain. While the foreign soldier raised his rifle, Mr. Kenneth quickly drew his .45 and shot him twice in the chest. The military wouldn’t let him keep the rifle but he got to keep the bayonet. He hung it above his bed until his great grandson was born, and then he gave it to him. Mr. Kenneth made many friends during his service.

After he returned he married Velma Wood, a nurse, and moved back home to Clovis, New Mexico. He worked on the railroads for three years. Then, they found out he was a cook, and they had him cook for crews that dealt with train wrecks. He did that for 24 years. Once he had to get groceries at 2 am because he had to go out and help with a train wreck. The police thought he was robbing the store and put a gun in his ribs. The owner quickly explained.

Mr. Kenneth had several other stories. Once, a hobo tried to rob his train crew, but the police took him down. He could not provide any context for this incident. Another time, a tornado blew over a train car full of cattle and they hired cowboys to round them up. He also told about a train that crashed while carrying a bomb that could have “blown Lubbock clean off the map”. Luckily, it didn’t go off.

His wife died in ’88 and his only child (girl) died in ’90. Mr. Kenneth’s wife had a boy and a girl who both had twins. His daughter’s husband wanted to have the twins killed, so he is barred from the house. His grandson usually visits during the holidays.